WILLIAM ASHTON

Probably the most successful of all the Old French names of Germanic origin that were introduced to England by the Normans. It is derived from Germanic wil ‘will, desire’ + helm ‘helmet, protection’. The fact that it was borne by the Conqueror himself does not seem to have inhibited its favour with the ‘conquered’ population: in the first century after the Conquest it was the commonest male name of all, and not only among the Normans. In the later Middle Ages it was overtaken by John, but continued to run second to that name until the 20th century, when the picture became more fragmented.

English: habitational name from any of the numerous places so called, especially Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester. Most are named from Old English æsc ‘ash tree’ + tūn ‘settlement’; the one in Northamptonshire is (æt þǣm) æscum ‘(at the) ash trees’. Others have been assimilated to this from different sources. The one in Devon is ‘the settlement (tūn) of Æschere’, while the one in Hertfordshire is ‘the settlement of Ælli’.